BONUS The Friday Show - You Can Call Him Al
Guest:And it does make sense now that he mentioned that his whole idea of the character in Heat, which Michael Mann gave no credence to on the screen, was that he was a cokehead.
Marc:Yes, that's fascinating.
Guest:Well, because now I'm like, oh, well, that's why you're crazy in these scenes.
Guest:Yes, now it kind of makes sense.
Guest:Hello, Chris.
Guest:Hooah!
Guest:You're hooahing me right away, huh?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You're not even waiting the multiple years and decades it took to establish that for Al Pacino.
Marc:Going right there.
Guest:What a treat to have Al Pacino in the garage.
Guest:It was great.
Guest:I mean, yeah, we'd been working on that one for a long time, as Mark mentioned on the thing that he had the book back when he was in Vancouver, like...
Guest:Right from the very start, we had it sent up there.
Guest:And so, yeah, we we've been working on this one.
Guest:We thought it was actually going to happen in the in the summer because I guess, you know, with production schedules or what they might be with Pacino.
Guest:You know, they were able to get him over there at some point in August.
Guest:And then I think just because of Mark's schedule, it didn't it didn't make sense.
Guest:So they were like, well, fine, we'll push it into October.
Guest:But I was a little nervous that whenever that happens, like sometimes those go away.
Guest:So I just, you know, I stayed on it the whole time and told our bookers, like, we got to do like very regular check ins, check in, check in, check in, make sure that Al Pacino thing happens.
Guest:And yeah, it never was like it didn't doesn't seem like it was ever in jeopardy.
Marc:I think they always wanted to do it.
Marc:I wonder if Connie Chung was very pleased to hear that Mark read Al Pacino's whole book or she'd be insulted.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I was just going to say, she might have been insulted.
Marc:But you can totally tell in that interview where it's like, yeah, I know this answer to this question before I ask it.
Marc:But we're going to ask anyway.
Marc:That's right.
Guest:He even says that at some point.
Guest:Because Pacino says to him, well, you know this because you read the book.
Guest:And he's like, yeah, I know.
Guest:That's the problem with reading the book.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, it's so funny because Larry King, who came up on the bonus material, like he also used to do this.
Guest:Like he did not or says he did not read or fully know all the material of people when they came in.
Guest:And his thing, which I think is a very reasonable point, was he said, I don't want to know more than the viewer.
Guest:Right.
Right.
Guest:And like, I just don't, I don't understand how some people don't get that.
Guest:Like, that's a, that's a totally understandable thing.
Guest:Like, why would I want to be the expert on another person?
Guest:Right?
Guest:Like, and this, this was a lesson.
Guest:I put this in bonus material a few months ago, an old interview that we had on Air America with the actor Eli Wallach.
Guest:And he, you know, it was a
Guest:Probably the same age as Al Pacino is right there.
Guest:You know, he's in his 80s.
Guest:He'd just written a memoir.
Guest:And Mark does this interview with him.
Guest:And at the end, he's like, this has been one of the nicest interviews I've ever had.
Guest:And he's like, oh, thanks.
Guest:He's like, because you didn't read the book.
Guest:And Mark's like, what do you mean?
Guest:He's like, I have the book.
Guest:He's like, yeah, but you didn't read it.
Guest:And Mark's like, well, no, I want you to tell these stories.
Guest:And he's like, yes, there you go.
Guest:Ding, ding, ding.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And like Mark completely internalized that.
Guest:Like he he he knows from now on like, OK, the better thing is for me to get the essence and then I can push people in certain directions and then they will tell me this thing for the first time, as opposed to me having read it on the page already.
Guest:And now I'm hearing it for the second time.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And yeah, he's taken that and literally had a second career because of that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, but I think the thing with the Pacino one is similar.
Guest:He didn't want to say this to Al Pacino's face.
Guest:But I think there was a concern.
Guest:There's been a longstanding concern about doing an interview with Al Pacino.
Guest:Anybody like he's one of those like kind of notorious, like prickly interviews, you know, or, or, you know, gets tagged as like difficult.
Guest:Oh, he's a difficult interview.
Guest:De Niro too.
Guest:And Mark and I will always have talked about it.
Guest:Cause these guys, you know, are legends of his, like Mark would love to have interviewed any of them at any time.
Guest:And he, he,
Guest:You know, when it came up, like, you know, should we pursue, you know, Robert De Niro for this movie or that movie?
Guest:Or should we pursue Pacino for X, Y, or Z?
Guest:It was always like, well, be aware, though, they're like tough interviews.
Guest:Like, you know, you don't want to get in there and have a situation where you like hate it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you're like, oh, man, this is Harry Dean Stanton all over again.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, I can't get anything going.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I remember when I brought that up, it was because of it was it was De Niro.
Guest:It was Harrison Ford, Pacino and Morgan Freeman.
Guest:And I was like, all four of these guys are like have reputations as bad interviews.
Guest:But so like if but like to me, they're like you absolutely you book them immediately.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like if you get the opportunity, you do this.
Guest:No brainers.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it's like we have to get on the same page as this.
Guest:Can you do you want to do these if they come up?
Guest:And he to Mark's credit, he was like, absolutely.
Guest:Like, you know, and that's not always the case.
Guest:Like like Steve Martin is, you know, came up and the caveat was he won't talk about anything but banjo.
Guest:He just wants to talk about banjo.
Guest:And Mark was like, well, then no.
Guest:And.
Guest:I remember him telling Conan that on Conan's podcast.
Guest:Mark was one of the very early guests on Conan's podcast.
Guest:And he was like, you know, do you do everybody that comes to you to talk to?
Guest:And Mark was like, no, I turned down Steve Martin.
Guest:And Conan was like...
Guest:Are you a fucking idiot?
Guest:Why would you turn down Steve Martin?
Guest:And Mark was like, because he just wanted to talk about banjo.
Guest:And Conan was like, yeah, so you say yes and then talk about other things with him.
Guest:But Mark's whole thing is like, no, because I don't want to have a bad experience.
Guest:I don't want to be sitting across from him and raise something and have him be like...
Guest:Didn't I say we were just talking about banjo?
Guest:You know, like have that like famous Billy Bob Thornton moment about Tom.
Guest:You wouldn't ask Tom Petty this or whatever.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Santa Claus on Detective Crashmore.
Guest:Would you ask Leonardo DiCaprio if he was Santa Claus?
Guest:so like i totally get it i was totally like like you know would have understood if mark was like no i don't want to have a bad experience with you know bobby de niro right but he you know from the get-go was like yes let's have these guys and when pacino became a reality it was a lot of it was planning of it was defensive right like okay how
Guest:How do we make sure this doesn't wind up being bad?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so the calculation was made.
Guest:Well, read his whole book, like know where he's coming from.
Guest:And from an extent, it was helpful because like Mark said, he got to be like, oh, this isn't the guy I thought.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like he, like, you know, I had all these preconceptions about him my whole life that he's some like heady method guy.
Guest:No, he's this like nervous, anxious dude.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so like, I think it was helpful for him to know that to then know who this old guy sitting across from him was.
Guest:And he could then just talk to that guy.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, and he did.
Marc:And you telling me that Al Pacino is a tough interview is news to me because listening to that episode on Thursday, I'm like, this seems like a very communicative guy who just loves to talk shop and talk stuff.
Guest:I listened to him on Conan and he sounded good on there too.
Guest:So like, you know, hey, people get older, they lose fucks, right?
Marc:Right.
Guest:He just wants to talk about his Shrek phone case now.
Marc:What's shocking to me, though, is so you and Mark knew that Al Pacino might be a hard interview, but you guys booked Al on the same day that you booked Robert Zemeckis.
Guest:Yeah, there's no avoiding that.
Marc:It was just a timing thing.
Marc:It was just a timing thing.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So, I mean, man, I got to say, Mark is such a professional because the fact that this was the second interview of the day where he had already interviewed Robert Zemeckis and he came off with Al Pacino just professional and just, you know, had a bunch of things he wanted to talk about.
Marc:Like, that's not light work, you know, that
Marc:No, it's hard work.
Marc:It sure is.
Marc:And he, I mean, man, that's like three hours probably talking to people.
Marc:Plus a lot of prep.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, God damn.
Guest:That is really impressive.
Guest:Well, I mean, it is.
Guest:I think it is impressive.
Guest:I will say, I think we try to avoid that, first of all.
Guest:So like, you know, our general thing is like, let's not book more than one interview per day.
Guest:but when we have schedule squeezes like this, where he's shooting a movie, he just got off shooting something else.
Guest:So we have this very compressed window.
Guest:We lost a bunch of days to COVID, um, and a lot lost some guests to COVID.
Guest:So we had to catch up.
Guest:And so sometimes it's just unavoidable.
Guest:And then one, one,
Guest:of the things we can do is make sure they're booked with enough space in between them.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, so I think, you know, Robert Zemeckis was at like 11 o'clock in the morning and I think he showed up early and then Pacino was five 30 at night.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So as he said, once they got done, it was dark outside.
Guest:So like you give Mark enough time, he can get his head back readjusted to talking to a different guy.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like it's not like a late night show, you know, where you're going to have three guests.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So you have to be there in the headspace of like, I'm living in this guy's life or this woman's life for this moment.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I'm ready to talk about them based on having synthesized everything.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, you know, you just when it's two guests like that.
Guest:You do the work ahead of time.
Guest:Like he and I did work on both ends and then just kind of like, let's talk about this right before you do Zemeckis.
Guest:Then when Zemeckis is done, okay, let's talk about Al, but we had been talking about Al all week.
Guest:So you just, you get it done.
Guest:I will say it's easy.
Guest:I don't want to say it's easier because he put a lot of pressure on himself with the Pacino interview, but I will say it's helpful.
Guest:Maybe that's the word.
Guest:It's more helpful when
Guest:When one of the two, if you're doing two guests a day, one of them is like a passion project guest, right?
Guest:Like he's always wanted to talk to Al Pacino, like since he was a teenager, right?
Guest:Like, so it's like, oh, okay, well, I'll get up for this no matter what.
Guest:Like, it's not going to be hard to get to that level of I'm excited to talk to Al Pacino.
Guest:So even though there's two guests that day, like you can then flick the switch to like, okay, did my one guest and that was good.
Marc:And now it's dream guest.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Man, a lot of good stuff in this interview.
Marc:I love he met with George Lucas about being Han Solo.
Marc:I just love thinking about a movie, Star Wars, with him as Han Solo.
Marc:She's got a big taunt on.
Marc:You got your head all the way up it.
Marc:I thought these things smelled bad from the inside.
Yeah.
Marc:Just great stuff.
Marc:By the way, Al Pacino was talking about a bar he met with Francis Ford Coppola.
Guest:Oh yeah, it's not there anymore.
Guest:I looked it up.
Guest:I was like, I want to see if I can still go there.
Guest:Totally.
Marc:That's what my first thought was.
Marc:Where is this bar and how can I get there?
Guest:I do that everywhere.
Guest:Like out in LA, there's this restaurant.
Guest:It's not even that good of a restaurant.
Guest:It's like a typical like Lowry's steak restaurant.
Guest:It's called the Tam O'Shanter.
Guest:But I go there every goddamn time because it was where Walt Disney would meet.
Guest:with executives from across town because, you know, Disney Studios is in Burbank, which was thought of as like the sticks for Hollywood.
Guest:Like, it's crazy that you would have had a studio out there.
Guest:Now, you know, there's a bunch of studios out there.
Guest:But at the time when Disney was there, it was like, you know, the country.
Guest:And everything else was, you know, closer to Hollywood, Studio City, all that stuff.
Guest:And so they decided a meeting point in between would be Atwater Village where this restaurant, Tam O'Shanter, is.
Guest:And if you go there today, you can get Walt Disney's table.
Guest:Like he had a regular table.
Guest:There's a plaque on it.
Guest:There's also one for John Wayne, like who used to go there all the time as well.
Guest:And it's not even a great restaurant.
Guest:It's like fine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But like I go there all the time because it's the exact thing.
Guest:I'm like, oh, so some deals went down here.
Guest:I would like to sit here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:That's I'm going to I'm going to try to seek that out next time I'm in L.A.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I love that he basically mentioned that I didn't really deserve the Oscar for Send of a Woman.
Marc:Crazy that he said that.
Marc:Yeah, he actually said that.
Marc:And, you know, good for him for saying it.
Marc:But also, he also revealed why he won.
Marc:And it's because he worked the circuit.
Marc:He worked the voters.
Marc:I mean, if you want to be elected anything, you just got to do the groundwork.
Marc:And that's what he did that time.
Guest:But that should also, like, expose the...
Guest:Like, I mean, I know we get this all the time.
Guest:The, the, like the, you know, everything's about campaigning for these things, but like, just think about how many wasted hours you've spent in your life arguing over who should have won something.
Guest:And that wasn't fair.
Guest:And all how this person get snubbed.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like all this stuff, people, these, our friend, Chris Rosen works for a website that handicaps the Oscars.
Guest:And you can like bet on it, gold Derby.
Guest:And like,
Guest:And it's just like a political campaign.
Marc:That's it.
Guest:This guy won for hoo-hawing all over the place.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:He just schmoozed and people were charmed by him.
Marc:Just, you know, like, oh, my God, I'm seeing Al Pacino and he's speaking in my face right now.
Marc:I'm going to go vote for that man now.
Guest:The hilarious thing is it's not even the best performance that he was nominated for that year.
Guest:What was the other one?
Guest:He's nominated for Glengarry Glen Ross the same year in supporting.
Guest:Now, granted, Gene Hackman won that and that's totally awesome.
Guest:He should win that and Unforgiven is great and is great in it.
Guest:But like...
Guest:Pacino and Glenn Gary is that's one of his best performances period and like he's way better in that than he is in Son of a Woman so like even if he's going around campaigning like you could be like oh man I just talked to Al Pacino and he's gotten me I'm gonna vote for him but you could have been like well I will vote for his better performance right I know right and
Marc:Like, what made them be like, well, I think I'll do the better award, or I guess the more prestigious award.
Guest:Well, yeah, I'd say best actor.
Guest:He'd never won best actor.
Guest:And he had all these, like, major, you know, performances that got ignored or didn't get ignored.
Guest:That's the other thing.
Guest:He just didn't get this thing.
Guest:They didn't get this paperweight.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he, you know, I remember him getting up during that, you know, at that speech when he won for Scent of Woman.
Guest:They gave him a standing ovation and he went, oh, you broke my streak because he'd just, you know, been losing any other time that he was nominated.
Guest:And I guess that was the thing.
Guest:It was like the same thing of like Scorsese winning for one of his worst movies, right?
Guest:He wins for The Departed.
Guest:And it was just like, you could tell even Scorsese was like this thing, right?
Guest:I made Cops and Robbers movie.
Guest:Like, what are you, crazy?
Marc:totally oh man um also love that he improvised during glenn glenn ross and mammoth was like that was amazing like the guy never alter a word in the script guy famously wrote a whole book on don't ever touch the script
Marc:But he gets to do it and he's like, oh, it's great.
Guest:Here's my wife.
Guest:I bet that he didn't know.
Marc:You really think he didn't know?
Guest:No, he thought this is brilliant.
Guest:I'm so glad I wrote it.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:This interview made me go through Al's IMDB.
Guest:Oh, never a bad thing.
Marc:I got to say, his IMDb is really, really good.
Guest:It is, but I will add, before you start reading them, I will add, I got to correct some problems.
Guest:There are ones I've never seen.
Guest:Oh, for sure.
Marc:That I really should see.
Marc:I've never seen Panic!
Marc:in Needle Park.
Marc:Same.
Marc:Never saw that.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Godfather, obviously.
Marc:And can I just say, he is...
Marc:Awesome in that movie because of what he was saying, which was what, you know, Francis R. Coppola was trying to get him to do to transform.
Marc:But yes, it really is that Michael transforms in that movie.
Guest:But but also like it's so weird because the non transforming part, the part where he's all stiff and cold and like a like a scared kid is.
Guest:is important but clearly like if you're showing people the footage of that in like the dailies like they're gonna be like what is this guy he's emotionless he's like uh there's i can't get a read on him right so i think that's so interesting that he got them to switch the the um the shooting of the of the the restaurant scene
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, I thought that was great.
Marc:Really, really insightful stuff.
Marc:Scarecrow, never seen it.
Marc:No, I haven't either.
Marc:He plays Lion, which I'm guessing, is this a Wizard of Oz type of movie?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Yeah, I don't know.
Marc:But Serpico is probably my favorite movie.
Guest:Well, oh, really?
Marc:Yeah, I love Serpico.
Guest:That's wild because that's the one I was going to bring up is like, I have to watch Serpico again because I remember being very slow and I remember not really getting into it.
Marc:I got to watch it again.
Marc:No, I love that movie.
Marc:And it's, you know, about like crooked cops.
Marc:And I've known cops and like...
Marc:You know, Pacino talks about it in the interview with, like, his friend's dad, like, hitting him, right?
Marc:And, like, he got punched in the face or whatever.
Marc:And it was, like, a real eye-opener for him.
Marc:And when I was a kid, my dad beat the shit out of me.
Marc:And to the point that, like, I had, you know, he threw me out of the house.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Walked to my friend's house.
Marc:And my friend was like, and I don't know if I told this story before.
Marc:So if I did, my apologies.
Marc:But my friend was like, hey, man, you literally can't stay here.
Marc:You have to go to the police department.
Marc:And so we dropped me off to the police department.
Marc:I tell the cops what happened.
Marc:They take pictures of me.
Marc:And I'm in one of those interrogation rooms you see in Law and Order.
Marc:Have you ever been in one of those?
Guest:No, I have not.
Guest:I've been able to spend my life outside of those.
Marc:Lucky for you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I had to be in there and I was there for until like three in the morning.
Marc:And like these cops were telling me like, look, man, we go through with this.
Marc:It's going to like ruin your dad's life and this and that.
Marc:And I relented because it was three o'clock in the morning.
Marc:I just wanted to go to bed.
Guest:Oh, they just like sweated you out?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And, like, my uncle picked me up, who was also a cop at the time, and drove me home.
Marc:And, like, that was that.
Marc:So even at a young age, I knew the cops were shitty.
Marc:And this movie, when I saw it, I was like, wow, the cops are real shitty.
Marc:And this is a real story.
Marc:So I personally just absolutely love Serpico.
Marc:I love the passage of time with the dog being a little dog, the big dog.
Marc:And I just...
Marc:I just loved it.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:To me, that's the Al Pacino movie that I just absolutely love.
Guest:Well, it's probably something about you latching on to the idea of like, well, at least there's one good one.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, it's like why I love Superman.
Marc:It's like, well, at least there's one guy who's going to stand up, you know?
Guest:I saw Frank Serpico once at, yeah, my family and I, we went to see a, like, it's a small, like, repertory theater company in upstate New York called the Mack Hayden Theater.
Guest:And they were doing a 4th of July production of the musical 1776 in
Guest:And I guess because Frank Serpico lived in the area, like he's like a neighbor or whatever, they had him introduce the show.
Guest:And it was like when my brother graduated and RFK Jr.
Guest:gave the speech and it was just like an hour long and everyone was like, what the fuck?
Guest:Get to the fucking thing.
Yeah.
Guest:he was like reading from the declaration of independence and he and like i remember like in my memory at one point he said something like and in closing and like people like heckled him like like in the audience like like oh it's about time you know oh my god
Guest:So, yeah, no, I'm not surprised that like the one guy who had to stand up against all the corruption had a little bit of self-righteousness about him.
Marc:Oh, man, that reminds me of when I was in Bologna, Italy, and they happened to be for some reason showing a screening of The Warriors.
Marc:You know, the movie where the gangs are, you know, have to get to Coney Island.
Marc:And the director of that movie is introducing it.
Marc:Oh, Walter Hill.
Marc:Yeah, and he's just going on and on.
Marc:And they actually cut his mic off.
Marc:And he's like, all right, here, enjoy the movie.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:And, like, the mic's cut off.
Marc:And he's like, you can just hear him say, Ken, you did it.
Guest:But yeah, great stuff.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:So yeah, after Serpico, Godfather Part 2, obviously, banger.
Marc:Great movie.
Marc:Dog Day Afternoon, which you and Mark talked about on a bonus episode.
Marc:And can I just say...
Marc:I've seen Dog Day Afternoon quite a bit.
Marc:When I was a kid, I never knew what Attica meant.
Marc:I just thought it was a cool thing that he was saying and everyone else was saying.
Marc:So did you know as a kid when you were watching it what Attica was?
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I mean, I don't know that I watched this as a kid.
Guest:I think maybe the first time I watched this I was in college.
Guest:I mean, I guess that's kind of a kid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, you know, like I remember hearing about the Attica prison riots and there's a... I can't remember if it's a just John Lennon and Yoko Ono song, but I remember there's an Attica song.
Guest:That they did.
Guest:So it's like just like a brief protest song.
Guest:Yeah, the name is Attica State, and I think it's on the Plastic Ono Band record.
Guest:And so that was just something that I was on in my life, like a Beatles record would be, right?
Guest:And so I remember, like it just, it wasn't a question to me what it was.
Guest:Like it was in my head that I knew what it was.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:I just thought it was fascinating that Pacino did, you know, said that and all of the extras sort of caught on to it.
Marc:It was such a kind of an organic scene in that movie.
Marc:I just thought that was really cool.
Guest:But that's totally like what would happen, right?
Guest:Like that's, that's exactly like, it would be like the equivalent I think would be like, if you were doing a shooting a movie today and you had a bunch of extras standing around and you know, they were trying to rabble rouse and they started saying black lives matter, right?
Marc:Like that would be what, like,
Guest:People in the 70s would have known, like, oh, yeah, sure, Attica State, sure.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:After that, he makes, like, Bobby Deerfield, which I haven't seen.
Marc:Then there's some miniseries for The Godfather.
Marc:I'm pretty sure that's just the movies back to back.
Guest:That's just a cut in sequential order.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, that doesn't count.
Marc:And Justice for All, I've never seen.
Guest:Oh, that's good.
Guest:That's a good courtroom drama.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:I wonder if that's on Criterion.
Marc:They had a courtroom drama section.
Marc:I wonder if that's on there.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Cruising, I've never seen Cruising.
Guest:No, I never have, and I always feel like it's wrong to watch it.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Why is it wrong to watch it?
Guest:I just feel like it's one of those, like, canceled movies, like.
Guest:everyone's like no no we're way past that but like the way mark and him were talking about it seems like you can kind of forgive some of its um blind spots as as a sign of the times and maybe just watch it for the character but i've never had any interest in watching it for reasons of it being probably pretty dated in its depiction of a culture right
Marc:An author, author, I've never even heard of that.
Marc:This is a comedy, right?
Guest:Yeah, Israel Horowitz.
Guest:I mean, that's the guy who wrote a bunch of the plays that he was in earlier.
Guest:Indian Wants the Bronx and I can't remember what else, but he definitely had some experience working with him at the time.
Guest:And I guess that's their first movie together.
Guest:I have never seen it.
Marc:Scarface.
Marc:Everyone loves Scarface.
Marc:I've seen the poster on countless kids' walls in college when I was a kid.
Marc:I've seen it once.
Marc:I think it's fine.
Guest:I totally get why it's like a film school person favorite.
Guest:But it's not for me.
Guest:I'm not into it.
Marc:So I will say when it first starts, when like the camera is, you know, is pan or I don't know, it's like zooming in or whatever.
Marc:I thought that was fascinating and I was on board, but it's just so, it's just so much.
Guest:It feels repetitive.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And I just, it's just not for me.
Marc:So yeah, I kind of just don't enjoy that movie.
Marc:I'm going to skip ahead, but like Sea of Love, I've never seen.
Marc:Dick Tracy, I've seen a whole bunch.
Marc:I love that Mark brought up Dick Tracy or maybe it was, it was Al, but- No, no, Mark brought it up as thinking that was what he meant when he said, I like just took some things for money.
Guest:And he was like, oh, like Dick Tracy.
Guest:And he's like, no, I fucking love that because it was Warren.
Guest:Yeah.
Right.
Guest:Also, I would have like, I mean, I guess it's just Mark didn't have any conception of Dick Tracy as a movie.
Guest:Like, I remember Dick Tracy was this huge passion project of Warren Beatty's like he had had the rights to it forever.
Guest:He was trying way back in the 70s to get it made.
Guest:So like and he got all his friends to be in it.
Guest:Like, you know, Dustin Hoffman is in it.
Guest:Estelle Parsons is in it.
Guest:Kathy Bates is in it.
Guest:And they're all in these like teeny tiny roles in
Guest:And it's just like because he was like, yeah, will you please come make the movie I've been dreaming of making?
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:It's just do me a favor type of thing.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:It's his version of this is the end, right?
Marc:Yes, yes, yes.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, like, I think Beatty kind of worked that way when he like Reds is just full of his friends, too.
Guest:And that's like a serious movie.
Guest:But it's also like that's I think a lot of what was afforded to these like actor director auteurs back then.
Guest:Robert Redford's another one I could think of, like where it was just like, yeah, sure.
Guest:You're allowed to go make whatever with however much money you want.
Guest:You're our big studio star.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, I think the only guy we ever saw do that was Clooney in our generation.
Guest:And he never really had a ton of success with it with his own directed films.
Guest:But it was still the same thing where he was like, I'm going to direct this and I'm just going to put in a bunch of people I like working with.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Then we get to Glenn Ross.
Marc:Oh, no, I'm sorry.
Marc:I'm skipping over.
Marc:We got Godfather Part 3, which I love that Pacino mentioned the recut version.
Guest:The thing you just watched.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I love that.
Marc:And he's right.
Marc:It does work better.
Marc:It's just still a flawed movie.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I love that he actually watched it, I guess.
Marc:That's really funny.
Yeah.
Guest:But that's the, the interesting thing is that, you know, like that's always the debate.
Guest:It's like, it's like the debate over like the white album.
Guest:Like it'll never end the debate over the white album of like, would you get a better album if you could just make it one record instead of two?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And people have for, you know, the minute it came out, have their own versions.
Guest:Oh, here's what the white album should be.
Guest:Here's what they should be.
Guest:I feel like Godfather three is the same because it has such great ingredients in it and it just never makes a stew.
Guest:Like you can't, it just doesn't, it's not, you're finished and you're like, what did I eat something?
Guest:Like I felt like I was eating.
Guest:It was a long time.
Guest:Like I was sitting there looking at the plate and it just doesn't feel like I ate anything.
Guest:And I just, I feel like that's forever the problem with it.
Guest:And it's, and it's the, the root cause is just not having Duval.
Guest:It's like, once you don't have Duval, it's over.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And like, that's, I think that's one of the movies that he was like, oh, I need to do it for the money.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Godfather part three.
Marc:And like, if they just gave Duvall some money, like the same money that he would have gotten, they, it would have been a much better product.
Guest:You know, he didn't bring it up and I have no, you know, knowledge of this, but I would bet you that was the problem.
Guest:Like Duvall was like, I should make whatever everybody else is making on this thing.
Guest:And they were like, oh no, you can make half of that.
Guest:And he was like, well, see you later.
Guest:Fuck this.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Frankie and Johnny, the director of Pretty Woman.
Marc:I've never seen it.
Marc:I saw that.
Guest:It's way different.
Guest:If you've ever seen the play, it's way, way different because it's like it's almost done like a sitcom.
Guest:I do remember watching it probably like too young with my parents.
Guest:And it was like, you know, a very adult, you know, a movie about adults and their sexual lives.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:It was a weird thing to watch.
Guest:But I also do remember, oddly, it being good and like being entertained by it, even at a young age.
Guest:So I couldn't tell you much critically about it, you know, and whether or not it's like in the class of Pacino performances, unlike the next one.
Marc:Your parents are fucking cool, man.
Marc:Like, you're watching Frankie and Johnny.
Marc:You're watching Pulp Fiction Reservoir Dogs with them.
Marc:Like, these are cool parents, I gotta say.
Marc:Good job, Mr. McDonald.
Guest:I think they would, there's an equal, with every cool parent, there's also equal parts negligence, right?
Guest:Sure.
Guest:So look, they gambled and the gamble paid off.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because they're like, hey, this kid can take it.
Guest:He's fine.
Guest:He's smart.
Guest:He can handle this stuff.
Guest:And they were right.
Guest:They could have been wrong and it could have been real fucked up.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But bad.
Marc:What a good gamble.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Next on Al Pacino's IMDb is Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:One of my favorites of all time.
Marc:Just a great all time performance.
Marc:Great, great movie.
Marc:I've never seen the play.
Marc:I'm probably going to see it this year.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You'll go see the revival.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Then Scent of a Woman, which I have seen a whole bunch because that was one of those HBO movies that would just be on.
Guest:It's also like a kind of needle drop movie because it's almost like segmented.
Guest:Like you can just you're like, oh, now it's the car driving scene.
Guest:Oh, now they're in court.
Guest:You know, like you can watch in little chunks like that.
Guest:And you know what?
Guest:I think it gets unfairly maligned.
Guest:I think it's like one of those movies that people are like, oh, that sucked.
Guest:You know, and Al Pacino was playing beneath himself and he won the Oscar unjustly, which he now just gave credence to.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But if you watch it, it's a good movie.
Marc:I mean, I always watched it because I was like, oh, Robin from Batman and Robin is going to be in this movie.
Marc:So I watched it for Chris O'Donnell.
Marc:Next up is Carlito's Way, which I've never seen.
Marc:Have you seen this?
Guest:Yes, I have.
Guest:Gosh, I feel like I'm just shitting on Brian De Palma and I don't have strong feelings about him negatively.
Guest:He's not one of those directors that I am repelled by.
Guest:But then I do see something like this and I'm like, Annie, just don't
Guest:I don't jibe with Carlito's Way.
Guest:I don't jibe with Scarface.
Guest:I just, I don't know what it is.
Guest:I mean, and it's not, it's not like I have like a super objection to either of those movies.
Guest:They just don't do it for me.
Marc:Well, you like Blowout, I'm guessing.
Guest:I like Blowout a lot.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I like Body Double, even though it's crazy and stupid.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Like, sometimes, like, I guess that's the thing.
Guest:Sometimes you just have to be on his wavelength.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And, like, it's a weird wavelength.
Guest:It's like, it can work and it cannot work.
Guest:I like that one that's really crazy and stupid with Antonio Banderas and Rebecca Romijn.
Guest:I think it's called Femme Fatale.
Guest:It's so crazy and dumb and good.
Guest:Some people feel the same way about that movie made Snake Eyes, which I don't feel the same way.
Guest:But...
Guest:yeah like again wavelength can you get on can you get can you vibe with this thing i guess is the that's the ultimate diploma test and i just don't with carlito's way either right and mission impossible great great mission impossible but yeah that oddly is really good for what that series became like it's very good compared to like the first all all those first three the the diploma one holds up the best of those initial three movies absolutely
Marc:Next is Two Bits, which I've never seen.
Guest:I don't even know if that's like, is that a real movie?
Marc:Did it ever get a release?
Marc:It sounds like it's like a G-rated.
Marc:No, it's PG-13.
Marc:But yeah, this guy lives with his grandpa, played by Al Pacino.
Guest:It says it got a release November 22, 1995, which is like right when Heat comes out.
Guest:And it says it had a box office of...
Guest:$26,000.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:How is that possible?
Marc:Wow.
Marc:That's crazy.
Marc:But yeah, you said it.
Marc:Heat comes up next.
Marc:And Heat is probably the second favorite I have.
Marc:Heat is great.
Marc:It's an all-timer.
Marc:He's great in it.
Marc:And everyone is just firing all cylinders.
Guest:all right i'm gonna say something that's a little controversial about this i don't i love heat i love you know i can watch it at any time uh i think he is i don't want to call him the weak link of heat because he's not weak he's fun as hell he is the one i'm watching and i'm the most like that's al pacino
Guest:Like he's doing a big character, right?
Guest:And this, I think, is the one that is the most infected by the hoo-ha.
Guest:It's like this and The Devil's Advocate are like, he's in full-on hoo-ha, right?
Guest:And I think I judge Heat harshly for that, or Al's performance in Heat, because...
Guest:There are two movies he makes over the next four years where he's excellent and he is much more restrained and he's giving a much more thoughtful, deliberate performance.
Guest:And it does make sense now that he mentioned that his whole idea of the character in Heat, which Michael Mann gave no credence to on the screen, was that he was a cokehead.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Fascinating.
Marc:Fascinating.
Guest:Well, because now I'm like, oh, well, that's why you're crazy in these scenes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Now it kind of makes sense.
Marc:Like, like it's, I feel like there were, there's a, what was it?
Marc:Oh, I think it was Michael Scott's movie inside the office.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Threat level midnight.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Where he's like, wait, but the butler's a robot.
Marc:And like, he's like, the butler's not a robot.
Marc:And then there's like a cut scene.
Marc:Like, oh, you know what?
Marc:The butler was a robot.
Yeah.
Marc:Like, why did you cut the scene where it makes sense that I'm crazy?
Guest:Yeah, that I'm screaming at people regular words.
Guest:Like, hey, give me what you got.
Guest:Give me what you got!
Marc:It makes total sense that he's just high on coke this entire time, right?
Marc:I got to watch Heat yet again now to see that through that lens.
Guest:So I think it's worthwhile skipping ahead then to those other two movies I just mentioned.
Guest:In doing so, we skip over one I've never seen, which was City Hall.
Guest:City Hall.
Guest:But...
Guest:we're jumping ahead there to Donnie Brasco, which Mark and, and Pacino talked about and the insider.
Guest:And I would say push comes to shove.
Guest:I would say like the insider is his performance.
Guest:That's right up there with those early ones, like Godfather and dog day and Serpico, right?
Guest:Like that's a great, it's also a great performance because he's,
Guest:The center of the film is Russell Crowe, right?
Guest:And he's the rock of the film, right?
Guest:Like he's the guy who has no sway in his integrity.
Guest:And Pacino in it, I would liken this to the dynamic in Rain Man, right?
Guest:Where the Hoffman character is what he is, right?
Guest:What you see is what you get because he's immovable.
Guest:He is that person, right?
Guest:And it's the crew's
Guest:character that has to transform, that has to convert.
Guest:And that's the same thing in The Insider.
Guest:It's Lowell Bergman who has to come around in his way of thinking and achieve a moral center that he did not have at the beginning of the film.
Guest:And that's always the harder part.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like it's easier to be like, I'm this one guy from start to finish, as opposed to the guy like Cruz in Rain Man gives the better performance because he has to change convincingly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Or, you know, like the Godfather where Michael Corleone transforms.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:He definitely it's a transformative piece.
Marc:And yeah, that's correct.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But so like I stack those on each other and then like looking at heat and the devil's advocate right next to each other, which like, again, I don't want to make this sound like it's a knock on him in those movies because I really love him in those movies, especially the devil's advocate.
Guest:Like there's like fewer things funnier than him in that movie.
Marc:It is all time funny for sure.
Guest:Well, it's like, it's also, it's like, who was the guy who wrote it was the guy was on our show.
Guest:Uh, uh, Tony Gilroy, right.
Guest:The, the, uh, the Michael Clayton guy.
Guest:And it's like, there's things in that.
Guest:I like, there's one thing I could like rewind and have Mark ask that.
Guest:It's like, uh,
Guest:Did you put on the page the line when when they're like they're in like the Al Pacino, John Milton, Satan characters apartment and there's nothing in.
Guest:He's just like on a phone and there's nothing anywhere.
Guest:And they're like there's some guy like talking about him.
Guest:He's like, yeah, nobody thinks he sleeps.
Guest:He doesn't sleep.
Guest:He doesn't eat.
Guest:And like, there's nothing else.
Guest:There's nothing in this loft, no bed, no couch.
Guest:And Keanu Reeves goes, where does he fuck?
Guest:And Al Pacino goes everywhere.
Guest:Like this, there's no way that you could even in your wildest dreams, put that on a page and be like, well, it's going to end up like this, like this stuff.
Marc:I want to know if in the script it's like everywhere in the cadence of hoo-wah or something.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:Yeah, Devil's Advocate, one of those movies that was just on cable.
Marc:And it also had that weird sex scene where the two women change, you know.
Guest:Oh, it's totally disturbing and fun at the same time.
Guest:This is why it's kind of underrated good movie.
Marc:Also, any given Sunday, right after The Insider.
Marc:And I personally absolutely love this movie.
Guest:There's more hoo-ha going on in that.
Marc:Oh, for sure.
Marc:But his speech at the end in the locker room.
Marc:His locker room speech is all time.
Guest:oh yeah we're going a little long i'm sorry but i i'll i'll skip over some insomnia i wish i liked that movie i just don't no it's it's it's a uh it it actually goes to show what um you know that nolan made christopher nolan made a better choice uh not working within like the hollywood system like
Guest:you know for all intents and purposes he's like an independent filmmaker he just gets hundreds of millions of dollars to make his movies right but he's like a guy who they like he goes off and makes them right with his production entity right and and and now you've got like basically bidding wars from studios over like who's going to get to have him right and this was like a full-on hired gun you're hired by the studio to come in and make this movie and
Guest:And yeah, it's like it shows he did the right thing to not do that anymore because it doesn't have it has no personal feel that movie.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And for me, I personally loved, you know, Christopher Nolan.
Marc:He was my Quentin Tarantino because like I saw the following and I had it on DVD and I was excited for Memento to come out.
Marc:And, you know, I saw Memento, loved it.
Marc:So I was like on board with Christopher Nolan at an early time.
Marc:And then Insomnia comes about and I'm like, boy, all right.
Marc:And like, I should love it.
Marc:It's Robin Williams.
Marc:It's, you know, Pacino, Hilary Swank.
Marc:And just, yeah, just couldn't connect with it.
Marc:But look, we can go on and on.
Marc:And I could because there's a lot of stuff here.
Marc:Ocean's 13, I think he's really good in that movie.
Guest:Well, I want to say I'm looking at this list here and it's like after insomnia.
Guest:he really doesn't do anything.
Guest:Like there's plenty of stuff like in oceans 13, where he has a small part, right.
Guest:Where you're like, Oh, that's great.
Guest:Or like the merchant of Venice, which is a, you know, movie version of what he did on stage.
Guest:And I saw that Broadway production with him in it, which was great, but that's different than him.
Guest:You know, in most of his movies, I, you really can't go through this and hit on anything until 2019.
Guest:Where you're like, oh, he's back to Al, full Al form.
Guest:Now, granted, I never watch those movies Mark always brings up, those ones that he made for HBO, which are in the middle there.
Guest:And it does seem like those ones, the Jack Kevorkian one, the Phil Spector one, and the Joe Paterno one, are like probably where he was doing some of his best acting during that like almost two decades where he was just kind of showing up in things for cash.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But yeah, I miss them as well.
Marc:So yeah, I feel bad about that.
Marc:But man, he comes back with a fury with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Marc:Really just fantastic, obviously.
Guest:Took Mark's part.
Marc:Yes, took Mark's part.
Marc:I'm shocked Mark didn't mention that.
Guest:I don't think, I think he's, I think he would feel too like ostentatious to do.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:For sure.
Marc:For sure.
Marc:Uh, but, uh, but that same year he, um, Pacino does the Irishman and, uh, that is an all timer as well.
Guest:Oh, so great.
Guest:It's so great because it's also, it's like weirdly like not accurate.
Guest:Like he doesn't, he's like, there's a, at one point in the movie, you're like, Oh, he sounds like he's from Chicago.
Guest:And then he just like completely abandons that.
Guest:And he's like Al Pacino the rest of the time.
Guest:And you're totally fine with it.
Guest:You're like, he seems like he's Jimmy Hoffa, so I don't care that it didn't sound like he's from Chicago.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I've seen that movie three times.
Marc:I'm probably going to put it on again at some point.
Marc:But before I do that, I'm probably going to try to watch like, I don't know, Carlito's Way or some of these other movies that I haven't seen of his.
Marc:But yeah, just an amazing career, IMDb.
Marc:And it's so cool that...
Marc:Al Pacino was in the garage talking about like, hey, remember that scene on your podcast?
Marc:Just one-on-one.
Marc:I keep on thinking about you listening to this interview and you're the only other one outside of Mark to be listening to this.
Marc:And I just thought that was a really cool moment.
Marc:That must have been fun for you.
Marc:Oh, it was.
Marc:It was a blast.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did you have to cut out a lot of stuff?
Guest:No, not much at all.
Guest:I definitely cleaned it up.
Guest:There's just things you want to clean up to make it more palatable.
Guest:There's a very brief thing that I cut out that was just kind of off-target, and it was one of those things that...
Guest:should just go on the, you know, you know, go on the floor and never to be heard from again.
Guest:But like, I actually think I am going to put it back up in the bonus content just cause it's like, Hey, how often do you hear Al Pacino just screwing around?
Guest:You know, like awesome.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, uh, there will be Jack and Jill.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's not a Dunkachino.
Marc:Also this week, I don't want to give short shrift.
Marc:I don't know how to say that phrase.
Marc:But Joe Boyd was on.
Marc:Never heard of Joe Boyd before in my entire life.
Marc:But this was a really great interview.
Guest:I know what your brain circled in this interview.
Guest:I know one million percent the part where you were like, wait a minute.
Marc:albert einstein trick or treat and that he was there with with oppenheimer's son the kid who was crying in the movie oppenheimer like that the mom like was like oh he's fine he's just crying his head off well i love that that mark was like how was he was he a good guy he was like kind of high strung or something
Guest:He's like, I'm pretty sure you saw that in the movie.
Marc:Can I just tell you, like the fact that Albert Einstein, the smartest guy on the planet, and he has kids ring his doorbell or knock on his door and he has to get up.
Marc:Get a big bowl of fucking candy corn.
Guest:That's what I thought.
Guest:I was like, wait, the smartest guy alive gives out candy corn.
Guest:He's not that smart then.
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:I mean, what is that?
Marc:But the fact that even he has to open the door and have the same banal interaction with little kids that I do on Halloween.
Guest:Well, I bet you had Albert Einstein of all people would be like, absolutely.
Guest:You have to, that's the whole point.
Guest:Like that's life.
Guest:Like you had to do that stuff.
Guest:Otherwise it's meaningless.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, right.
Guest:Cause he knows like everything is ultimately meaningless.
Guest:So like, if anything, like he's the guy who's most going to come to the door.
Guest:I just thought it was crazy that he's like, Oh, I am so smart.
Guest:And here is your candy corn.
Guest:Like,
Guest:What?
Guest:The smartest guy alive should be given full bar candy.
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:Also, I just love the idea of him being like, oh, look at you.
Marc:What are you, a princess?
Marc:A Dracula?
Marc:And my first thought of, dude, aren't you Einstein?
Marc:You don't know what I am?
Guest:I would love it if everybody who came to his door, he just thought they were some version of a scientist.
Guest:oh look at this scientist has large fangs i i i will say i think candy corn is probably one of the worst things you can give on on halloween well now it is because it's just like hanging out right like people like people like no you don't eat loose candy right
Marc:That's the thing.
Marc:Here's my big bowl of candy corn.
Marc:One fistful, kids.
Guest:Yeah, you get that.
Guest:It drops that in your bag.
Guest:You're like, yeah, thanks, Einstein.
Guest:It's like the one time it's not ironic.
Marc:That's the best.
Marc:I can't believe that was happening in New Jersey.
Marc:Like, what a time, man.
Marc:I think it's really candy corn, Smarties, and pretzels.
Marc:Worst trick-or-treat candies you could possibly give up.
Guest:Well, they're probably the worst of the candies.
Guest:Although, like, I don't know, Smarties, whatever.
Guest:It's a little sugar, quick sugar.
Guest:But, like, I always think it's the non-candy people.
Guest:Those are the people that have got to watch out.
Guest:Yeah, pennies, raisins.
Marc:Let's see.
Marc:I don't mind raisins, for sure.
Guest:I don't mind raisins as an adult, as a kid, and be like, get these fucking raisins out of here.
Guest:Is there chocolate on them?
Marc:That's a raisinet.
Marc:I know.
Guest:That's what I'd be looking for.
Guest:On a box that you can shake.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:Now, this Halloween, do you know what you're giving out?
Marc:Like, did you...
Guest:We got, we went and got the candies already.
Guest:I mean, we always do the grab bag of candies, get them, get a bunch of varieties.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:Cause you're out doing.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:We go, we like giving out candy out front.
Guest:Then when, you know, once it's gone, once it's done, then we go out.
Guest:But, uh, but yeah, no, we usually, what I usually, my thing is I get a variety and then I let each kid pick two.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And see, I'm a full candy bar household.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:So yeah, they get one.
Marc:And if they ask for another one, I'm like, sure, I guess.
Marc:Do you need that second one?
Marc:But sure.
Marc:But yeah, that's me.
Marc:But yeah, Oppenheimer's son.
Marc:Like, that is crazy to think about him just hanging out with Oppenheimer's son.
Marc:I did not expect...
Marc:Albert Einstein and Oppenheimer to be involved in that episode.
Guest:In this Record Producers episode?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, it's also like he's this guy.
Guest:I'm like, wait a minute.
Guest:You're like a real-life zealot.
Guest:You're just like touching all these people.
Guest:And he's like a talented artist in his own right.
Guest:I can say that as a producer.
Guest:I thought it was very interesting that he had this idea of like, I don't group music by genre.
Guest:Like, I'm not...
Guest:Like, you know, even Mark wanted to like kind of attribute to him this this kind of guardianship of world music or global music.
Guest:And he's like, no, I just like what sounds good.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then and then he starts to peel the onion of it and be like, oh, this goes back to this and this goes back to this.
Guest:And these are all these old connections.
Guest:But he's not thinking about that in the terms of like, oh, well, you know what I tend to like is a Senegalese, you know, steel drum or whatever.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He's just like, does it sound good?
Guest:And I totally relate to that.
Guest:I relate to that in virtually anything that I'm involved in as a producer.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I made another Sonic playlist.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:I was wondering if you would do that because I was like, well, this one seems like it's going to be hard.
Marc:Well, you know, it's funny.
Marc:And I've been doing this for like three, you know, maybe three episodes.
Marc:And there are similarities.
Marc:There are there is some overlap, but not as much as I would think.
Marc:And so the fact that these guys were just mentioning all these acts and all these different things and it was fascinating.
Marc:So, yeah, I'll send you that.
Marc:Brendan will put it on the liner notes of this episode.
Guest:I like that you called him that.
Marc:what the liner notes yes like it's like an episode appropriate music oriented and can i say um i am not a music head like i'm not a record guy but i really enjoyed that bonus episode oh good mark at the at the record shop uh record uh what is it
Marc:it's a factory it's like the pressing factory that does most of the records in america or at least did in 2013 i don't know it's still the the preeminent record pressing factory there was some great stories there and that is one of the places that i starred when i was going to nashville i was like oh yeah i would like i would like to go to this place i didn't was not able to but i if i ever go back i hope it's still there i would love to like just see that place uh but that was really fun and like the blood record
Marc:that uh i love it when he brought that up mark was like of course he did yes
Marc:What a crazy, crazy thing to have done.
Marc:Like, oh, hey, don't worry.
Marc:That's the nurse who's here to take your blood after your show.
Marc:Like, what?
Guest:Whose blood was it that he got in FedEx?
Guest:He's like, wait a minute.
Guest:I just got so-and-so's blood via FedEx.
Marc:This isn't legal.
Marc:I think it was like Jack White or something.
Guest:Or I think it was like Mark Knopfler or somebody.
Guest:It was like something really weird.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Was it one of the Magnetic Field guys?
Guest:It could have been that.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, no, no.
Marc:Nick Cave.
Marc:It was Nick Cave.
Marc:Nick Cave.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That was wild.
Guest:Well, you know, it's funny.
Guest:The reason why we did that at the time we did it was it was like at the period of time where Mark was like getting really into vinyl records.
Guest:He was talking about them on a lot of episodes.
Guest:And we thought like...
Guest:You could talk about anything.
Guest:And like, you know, you and I came on here last week and talked about sports, right?
Guest:We talked about the Mets.
Guest:But then I think what is important is to know, hey, not everybody likes this shit, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, you know, you always have to keep that in mind.
Guest:It's like it was what we thought about with the wrestling when we first started doing this.
Guest:It's like, what can you tell about this that gets somebody who doesn't care about it to at least understand your point of view or your perspective or why this might be interesting?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that's always been the goal here.
Guest:And that was exactly the goal of that record factory thing was like, hey, maybe just like let people understand why you think this is an interesting product as opposed to what they do when they turn on their like, you know, Spotify or whatever it was at the time.
Guest:I don't even know if there was Spotify yet.
Guest:Um, but like that was, that was the thought, like get, let's give everybody a little context about the actual tactile use of this thing, where it comes from, why it's interesting to you and why it's like a good representation of the entirety of music.
Guest:Like it was all going through that spot.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like even back then with 2013, he was like, yeah, we just pressed Taylor Swift's album or whatever.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And there was like an afterthought, you know?
Marc:It wasn't even like a big deal.
Guest:I think that was a huge hit, though.
Guest:I do think like... I mean, she wasn't as big a global star, but that's the like 1989 album, I think, comes out right around that time.
Marc:Yeah, you might be right.
Marc:Anyway, it was great.
Marc:And again, I'm not a record collector, but...
Marc:I thought it was fascinating what that gentleman was saying about how a record is actually made with the funnel.
Marc:It was fascinating.
Marc:Absolutely fascinating.
Marc:So thank you for that.
Marc:And yes, the artwork of albums has always been a thing that I always loved.
Marc:I always remember Led Zeppelin II, or maybe it was III, and it had this kaleidoscope effect to it.
Marc:When I was a kid, my dad had a moody blues album, Days of Future Past, and it had this trippy artwork, and that stuff is sorely missing in music today, so it was really cool.
Marc:Are you a record person?
Guest:No, no, I don't have a turntable.
Guest:I've never really thought about it that much.
Guest:And I love the sound of CDs.
Guest:I've always, you know, had no problem listening to CDs that I still have a massive collection of.
Guest:I never felt the need to like, I got to put all these CDs onto digital and have them on my iPod.
Guest:No, I just still listen to them on a stereo.
Guest:And that's my version of having a turntable.
Marc:My version is DVDs.
Marc:I love a movie collection.
Marc:Oh yeah, you still buy them to this day.
Marc:I still buy them.
Marc:I love it.
Marc:I love when there's a digital copy that I can get, but I also love the 4K transfer.
Marc:And that goes back to when I was a kid.
Marc:My dad would just have tapes upon tapes.
Marc:We had our own blockbuster video in our home.
Marc:So yeah, I get that from my father.
Guest:And now you don't even have to have the nudity cut out.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:Now it was so much more nudity.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's so great.
Guest:Well, listen, we, there's a lot more we could talk about and specifically in talking about things that have come in and episodes that we've had, we've got your reactions to things, but Chris and I, you know, keep blabbing on here and we run out of time.
Guest:So I will hold over the, the mailbag stuff that we had today.
Guest:I also think, you know, I know that we talked about doing once upon a time in Hollywood, uh,
Guest:This month and next week is the last week of this month for us for the Friday show.
Guest:I think, though, I would like to, Chris, read through this 30th anniversary of Pulp Fiction double article that was in Variety.
Guest:And I'll put a link to it in the description here for people if they want to read it as well.
Guest:I would love us to talk about this almost as a setup to what we're going to be doing and watching the final film.
Guest:Because this week was the 30th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, Monday, October 14th.
Guest:That was when it came out in theaters in America.
Guest:As we mentioned earlier, it did premiere at Cannes in May.
Guest:But this variety piece, they interviewed like 20 people that were involved in the movie, actors, crew members, producers.
Guest:And I would love us to like go through on the basis of everything we've learned from watching these movies so far.
Guest:I just watch Pulp Fiction again.
Guest:So it's fresh in my head.
Guest:So let's talk about that next week.
Guest:And we will we will push Once Upon a Time in Hollywood off into next month.
Guest:I don't think anyone will complain about the fact that we may be elongating our Quentin Tarantino movie watching to 10 months as opposed to our original nine months.
Guest:I mean, hey, he says he's going to make 10 movies, but he's really made 11 or whatever.
Guest:We're doing the same thing.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:So we'll do that next week.
Guest:I did want to, I don't want this to get too far away because I, it's a, it's a question that is, is important to me.
Guest:It's important for me to share the answer.
Guest:And this came in from Scott and it was in relation to the bonus Mark and Tom show that we played the other day.
Guest:He said, I have a weird question.
Guest:I'm hoping you can answer last week.
Guest:You replayed the first episode of the Mark and Tom show and
Guest:And it reminded me that I've been obsessing for years with the song that you play at the end.
Guest:I've tried Shazamming it, Googling the lyrics.
Guest:I even wrote to Mark at one point, but didn't hear back.
Guest:Can you tell me what song that is and by who?
Guest:And it is, yes, it's the song at the end.
Guest:It is also the song at the very beginning.
Guest:That's the same song.
Guest:And that song is very important to me.
Guest:That is a song by my friends, Mike and John Hogan and their band, the Tokleys.
Guest:I knew Mike from college and weirdly, his brother John and my wife Dawn went to high school together.
Guest:So there was a whole bunch of connections there.
Guest:And Mike and John Hogan had this band, the Tokleys, and they are the people who introduced me to the best show with Tom Sharpling.
Guest:So, and interestingly enough, like they, you know, were this little garage rock band from New Jersey.
Guest:I think the reason why they got into Tom was because Tom's, I don't know if they were married at the time, his ex-wife, who might've been his girlfriend at the time, Terry T, who did a show at WFMU in New Jersey.
Guest:She came to see some show they did and was like,
Guest:Oh, this band, the Tokleys is awesome and played it on WFMU.
Guest:And I think that's how Tom got to know them too.
Guest:Cause like, I know that Tom knows John and Mike Hogan.
Guest:And so, you know, this is all of this was like, to me, like all wrapping around in like these connections and now I'm connected with Tom and now I'm getting Tom connected with Mark.
Guest:And I was like, the thing I have to do
Guest:is put a Toklis song as the theme to the Mark and Tom show.
Guest:So the Toklis have since disbanded.
Guest:They are family men who live in disparate parts of the world right now.
Guest:But I will make sure to include the link in the episode description here to where they've posted this online.
Guest:And you can still hear that song, download their other songs.
Guest:I think they might even be on Spotify, but I will put the direct link in the episode description.
Marc:What a thoughtful tip of the hat that you did there.
Marc:Like that is a subliminal, like what a nice gesture.
Guest:Oh, you can say it's a nice gesture.
Guest:I just thought it was absolutely necessary.
Guest:Like I'm looking for a piece of music to start this thing out.
Guest:And I'm like, this is kismet.
Guest:This is how it all should wrap up, you know?
Marc:That's like a nice bow.
Marc:Very cool.
Marc:And thank you for that question.
Marc:And that's a great answer.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And and we will take more of your questions, your comments, everything else next week when we will also talk about this Pulp Fiction 30th anniversary oral history.
Guest:And and we will soon in the weeks to come talk about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Guest:I think we also have promised a beekeeper discussion, which I know, Chris, baby.
Guest:You have rewatched The Beekeeper.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:I have to stay up on that as well.
Guest:So go ahead and send us anything else you want us to talk about right there in the episode description.
Guest:And until then, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Peace.